I think it's interesting to learn where sayings come from, and also all the nifty details that are unearthed in research. You just never know what tangent it might take you on, and what that can do for a story.

LOL, I could get lost in research every day. From this past WIP, I now know how an MRI works. From others, I know about volcanoes, tunnel-digging machines, comets, nanotechnology, antiques... I love learning about new things. I just have to make myself stop long enough to get the scene written. ;o)

I'm learning all kinds of things. The most recent deals with drugs in sports. It was something I was interested in while working on my MSc in exercise physiology, but now I get to use that interest/knowledge in a novel. Of course things have changed, so I had to do some more up-to-date research. :D

I can't help it, I just get the warm fuzzies anytime I'm mentioned in another bloggers post? Thanks for that!! I actually did some research to learn more about half-cocked for that very post. Apart from that I've learned more than I ever wanted to about the psychology of school shootings and domestic bio-terrorism. :)

By researching a particular character's interest I learned a lot of architecture that I otherwise would never have known. That's often the best part of writing for me, learning new things through research.

Hmm, what have I learned??? I researched anemias for part of my dystopian, though I have to admit it was more of a refresher from med school...Not too many people have a Harrison's pocket guide though, I bet! ;)

For what it's worth I recently had to figure out where my character could get shot in the torso (arms or legs wouldn't do) and be sufficently patched up the next day that he could pretend it hadn't happened. I put the question out and it turns out the shoulder is the best place. Most other places will lead to complications that just wouldn't heal like that.

It wasn't a flintlock gun, though, that shot him, it was a futuristic weapon that I invented.

Ah, great question Lydia. I love doing research, so I am always learning something knew. I'm in research mode right now and it's very exciting. In fact, I'm learning a bit about steel myself.I did some research on sporting clays by actually getting out and shooting clay pigeons. Great fun and very educational.Have a good weekend!

I've learned a lot about the politics of Czechoslovakia in 1942, metamorphic and igneous rocks native to the southern shores of Lake Superior, the civil war in El Salvador, and the contents of your average ambulance. It was so interesting to read everyone else's comments. Great post, Lydia.

Lovely to meet you fellow crusader! I'm guilty of chatting people up at parties if I find they know something I need for research, even if it's simply the fact that they happen to be native speakers of a language in one of my books. I've always been in love with Welsh and Scottish and all that - never thought I'd be hankering after learning Spanish, but my main character comes from Spain, and suddenly I want to visit that country first out of all others I haven't been to yet!

I'm writing WWI fiction, and last year, while torturing one of my characters, made the mistake of Googling for information on geniturinary war wounds. Yikes! The pictures I ran across are still hiding in my brain right now. As a doc, you probably have a good idea why!

Everytime I start doing research I somehow ending up spending hours reading all sort of interesting tidbits...some things not even related to my novel. Yup... I definitely get distracted way too easily.

Huh. I knew what half-cocked was, and not a hen who shares her husband. But I thought that "flash in the pan" had to do with photography from the same period, where the guy had his head under a towel and held up a pan...Thanks for the comment and follow!

First, welcome to the Crusade! Second, it seems I've boggled many a mind over the fact that the KKK had such a large presence in the Midwest during their heyday in the 1920s. I was even told, by a supposed critiquer in a contest, that I didn't know how to research and that I needed to get my facts straight. Ha!

I have a fascination with the Romanov family and have researched the lives of the family of Tsar Nicholas II for years. I also do research on notoriously famous serial killers which is hair-raising and likewise just as fascinating.

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